


Love is Still There

by alicefiresage



Category: American Horror Story: Hotel, Gotham (TV)
Genre: Body Positive, Chubby Oswald Cobblepot, Explicit Language, F/M, Mentions of Sex, Reconciliation, we stan chubby oswald in this house
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-23
Updated: 2020-07-23
Packaged: 2021-03-04 23:26:37
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,907
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25460878
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/alicefiresage/pseuds/alicefiresage
Summary: After living in the Hotel Cortez, Alice Sage didn't expect her ex-husband to show up there one day. It's be a while since she had last seen him, but she didn't still have feelings for him. Right?
Relationships: Oswald Cobblepot/Original Female Character(s), Tristan Duffy/Liz Taylor (American Horror Story)
Kudos: 5





	Love is Still There

**Author's Note:**

> Okay, so a few things: when I originally wrote this, I was bored in my precalc class. This also isn't beta read, so I'm sorry for any mistakes. (I'm also uploading this late at night) Finally for a better idea of the version of Oswald I'm trying to describe check out willgray_art on Instagram. The picture that inspired this is on there. Thanks for reading and I hope you enjoy!

The Blue Parrot Lounge was quiet for a Friday night, but most of the Hotel Cortez’s ghosts were off doing their own thing. It was nice that a haunted hotel was owned by a known fashion designer. It could stay open only for its residents if it wanted. It made the nights like this kind of nice and calm. Liz and Alice were sitting at the bar, talking about whatever their latest books were, while Sally was in the corner, doing her own thing.

“So, Will Drake might be doing business with one of Batman’s arch enemies,” Liz told Alice, changing the subject.

“Oh? Is he turning to villain costumes now?” Alice asked, pouring herself a glass of bourbon. No one was going to come tonight anyways, and she really hoped Liz wasn’t about to tell her that Will Drake was going to work for the Joker.

“No, no. This one went legit; he wants some custom suits.”

Alice raised the glass to her lips. So, Harvey Dent maybe. “Who?” she asked, before taking a drink.

“The Penguin,” Liz answered, Alice choked, “Oswald Cobblepot.”

Not him, for the love of god not him. Normally Alice would pass her choking off as the drink being a little too strong or it went down the wrong tube. Liz knew better, she could tell that the name set off some sort of alarm in Alice’s brain. May as well tell the truth at this rate.

“Do you know him?” Liz asked, “Did he hold you hostage once?”

Alice let out a breathless laugh, shaking her head. It took her a minute to get her breath back. She really hadn’t been expecting his name. Maybe Dent or Nygma but not Cobblepot.

“No nothing like that. I wish it was that simple,” Alice finally said.

Sally was listening at this point, not even trying to hide it. So, Alice waved her over, not planning on explaining this more times that she absolutely had to. “He’s my ex-husband.” She told the pair.

“Holy shit,” Sally breathed, “What happened?”. Neither of them was expecting that. They knew she had been married before coming to the Hotel Cortez, but they never asked any questions. Alice only ever mentioned him in passing, generally as some form of bastard. Short was her favorite but Alice was at least six feet tall, so that didn’t really narrow the field.

“I wanted to go legit for a while, get the GCPD off our backs. He wanted his ‘kingdom’ back. Ended up in our biggest fight ever and divorced by the end of the month. “I wanted to go legit for a while, get the GCPD off our backs. He wanted his ‘kingdom’ back. Ended up in our biggest fight ever and divorced by the end of the month.” Alice explained, trying to shrug it off. She had been what she called one of the big baddies back before Batman showed up. A thorn in Jim Gordon’s side even from the days that Carmine Falcone was still alive. She was known as Media, creating schemes from books, movies, tv shows, and video games. While Media never disappeared, she kept low on the radar. Most of her elaborate schemes were with The Riddler, Scarecrow and when they were together, the Penguin. Liz knew she was Media because she came to return a book in the middle of a collaboration with Two Face. This was the first time Sally knew about it. For almost anyone but Liz, a lot of Alice’s past was a mystery. That was only because Liz was the only one to ask about it.

\- - -

The girls hung around the lounge for a little while longer before Sally disappeared to do her own thing. Looking at the time, Alice fully expected Liz to do the same soon enough. Last she heard, Liz and Tristan had a date. But when he didn’t show after a few minutes, Alice was a little concerned. “What happened to date night?” Alice asked.

“Working late- and no you don’t need the baseball bat. It’s the first time he’s done this.” Liz told her.

Alice snickered at her comment. She told Liz long ago that if Tristan ever hurt her, all she had to do was ask and she’d kick his ass if needed. She was going to ask about Liz’s son when the elevator coming down caught her attention. Normally she wouldn’t look twice at whoever was coming down, but there was an absurd amount of emerald green in there. No fucking way.

Not only was Oswald somewhere in the hotel, Edward Nygma, The Riddler, was here too. He made his way to the bar, sliding into a seat without hesitation. He didn’t expect her to be there and they both knew it, but why act surprised when it was more fun to act like he did.

“What has words but never speaks?” Ed asked. Liz thought about it for a moment, having never heard that one before. Alice rolled her eyes; he had given her this riddle on a card attached to a book he gave her once. She used the card as a bookmark now.

“A book,” Alice answered, “What the hell are you doing here Ed?”

Ed chuckled, “Hello to you too, Alice. Will Drake told me the bartender was nice, but I wasn’t expecting you, Media.”

Alice didn’t miss the look Liz shot her, there would absolutely be questions later. Either Ed was taking a guess about things, or he found a crack in Alice’s system. If there was one, she would punch him later. Instead she made him a grasshopper but didn’t charge him for it. “To celebrate your recent ‘release’, the first is on me,” Alice told him.

“So, it’s not just Aileen you buy drinks for,” Liz said as she got up. Tristan was at the elevator door waiting for her, finally off work. Alice rolled her eyes, refilling her own drink. It would be the last of the night so that they could toast Ed’s ‘freedom’. She had been the one to put the glitch in Arkham’s system and deem Edward sane. A favor to an old friend, and a way to piss the Bat off since he wasn’t able to prove it was her. It was probably one of the biggest crimes she had committed in months. “How’d you end up here?” Ed asked.

“I had planned on wandering the country for a while after the divorce, this was one of the first places I landed. It grew on me, and they offered me a job, so I stayed,” she answered.

“Bartending became a hobby then?”

“In a way, yes. Are you getting a fancy designer suit too?”

“It wasn’t my idea.”

Alice chuckled at that. Ed had nice suits, but designer wasn’t his style. They started talking about anything they could think of before Ed had to go back upstairs. He was originally sent down for the drinks anyways. Years of habit made it easy to remake Oswald’s favorite drink, and Will’s was easy. She sent Ed back upstairs with a tray holding the bottles just in case. She planned on closing early tonight a few hours ago. Nobody would be coming in on a weekday.

\- - -

The next morning was quiet, no alarms to deal with and she didn’t have to cover for anyone. So, she drifted in and out of sleep for a bit until her brain wouldn’t let her anymore. Since she was working the bar again tonight, she picked up her book and decided to read it, since it was almost finished.

Just as she was looking for the sequel, there was a knock at the door. It was Liz, who was done working the front desk downstairs. Alice let her in, asking if Liz knew where she put the book she was looking for. “Why would I know where it is? You’re taller than me,” Liz remarked, “Are you still working the bar on Devil’s Night?”

Ah, so that was part of the reason Liz was here. Only part of course, Liz knew Alice wouldn’t miss Devil’s Night. There was something else she wanted to talk about, there had to be. Carefully, Alice ran a fair hand across the spines of a few books, “Do you really have to ask? We wouldn’t hear the end of it for years,” Alice replied, finding the book she had been looking for pushed over with the back cover laying up.

Alice turned towards her friend, placing a bookmark on the first page, “What’d you really want to ask Liz?”

“Honestly,” Liz started, “How did Gotham’s power couple fight so hard they divorced?”

Alice chuckled. Either Liz did some research, or she remembered the newspapers. “We’re stubborn,” Alice answered, “At the time, we let that get in the way. Add in short tempers and the pair of us saying things we didn’t mean, and you’ve got the perfect recipe for divorce.”  
Alice sat next to her friend, resisting the urge to push her fingers through her black hair. She didn’t regret signing the papers, she never would have found the Hotel Cortez or the people in it if she hadn’t. Right in that moment, she missed him something fierce. Liz could see it written on her face. Alice didn’t mean for it to end like that, in anger and untrue words. By the time her anger dissolved she realized what they had done, that it was too late to reverse it. The divorce had been announced, Batman and the GCPD were finally leaving him alone for a bit, and she wasn’t even on the radar at that point. They believed he was too busy dealing with the divorce to plot any schemes, a misjudgment on their part but they never proved it. If she went back, they would’ve seen it as a ruse. In a way, Alice had gotten what she wanted but not in the way she wanted.

Finally, Liz broke the silence, wrapping an arm around Alice. “You know, we could always doll you up in one of Will Drake’s dresses and send him down to the bar.” Liz suggested.

Alice snickered, knowing full well that she was serious. Well, what would It hurt? It wouldn’t start a gang war in Gotham, and they weren’t foolish enough to bring Batman into it. Worst case scenario, they ended up in awkward silence until he left. “Alright, give me a few days to think about it,” Alice replied.

They talked until Alice had to head down to the bar for her shift tonight. It was likely going to be slow, so she took her book with. Hopefully this was the last in the series, she really didn’t want to wait another year for the sequel. She would likely chuck it at her brother’s head for recommending the series in the first place, or a shoe depending on when she next saw him. She left her room, reading the new book since she needed answers and knew the halls of the hotel by now. Unfortunately, she didn’t see the three men headed for the same elevator she was, but she heard them.

It was Oswald’s laugh she heard first, giving her reason to duck into the space where the nearest ice machine was kept. For a minute she was glad the man who created the hotel was a serial killer that made the hotel a maze. When the voices got a little further away, she carefully went to the nearest corner to view the elevator. Curiosity would likely get her killed one day, but not today.

The purple of Oswald’s suit caught her attention first, thankfully he was busy talking to Will Drake. He had gotten thicker after his time in Blackgate Prison, but had Alice never minded that. Not much had changed since she last saw him, but it didn’t make him any less handsome. She saw the trick umbrella he held as a cane and wondered if his limp had gotten any worse. Once the elevator doors shut, she watched for a moment the numbers above it to see where they were headed. While the numbers went up, she took the stairs down to the bar.

The more she thought about it that night, the less downfall she saw in seeing him again. Usually if someone she loved broke her heart, she never spoke to them again. Hell, after the divorce she had planned to leave Gotham entirely, yet she didn’t. She said she stayed because she became a bartender and liked the people at the hotel, but that was only a half truth and she knew it. She stayed for him and she knew it, even if Alice really didn’t want to admit it to herself.

The night was as slow as she predicted, but it could have been expected since it was a weeknight. It didn’t stop Will Drake from using the phone to order drinks though, which gave her something to do. Halfway through making Will’s mixed drink, Alice saw Tristan in the lobby, giving her a perfect idea. She called him upstairs, having the drinks ready on a tray by the time he got there. “Want to make an easy two hundred bucks?” Alice asked as Tristan leaned against the bar.

Tristan raised his eyebrows, “Doing what?”

“Be my delivery boy for the night.”

Tristan thought about it for a minute before answering, “Tell me the reason why you don’t want to do it yourself and I’ll do it.”

She really didn’t want to know how he figured that out so quickly but figured he might as well know the reason why. “My ex-husband is up there,” she told him.

“You were married?” Tristan asked, “I need to see this.”

Alice shot him a middle finger after she handed him the cash, he chuckled on his way towards the elevator. She knew damn good and well that he would come back to tease her once he saw who it was, but she didn’t mind. While she waited for Tristan to come back down, she thought about Liz’s offer a bit more. Before she could change her mind, she sent Liz a text saying she wanted to do it. Probably one of the dumbest things she would do all week but what would it hurt. If it failed, she could disappear in the mountains for a couple years, run the show from a remote location. It was easier to not let herself over think it, and instead Alice went back to her book.

“You married The Penguin?” Tristan asked once he got back with the empty tray.

Alice marked her place with her finger, looking up at him with a smirk. The wide-eyed look on his face combined with his imitation rockstar hair in a mess was absolutely priceless. Tristan wasn’t from Gotham; he wouldn’t have really paid attention to the major crime bosses and what they did. “I did, and I would do it again.” She told him.

Admitting that out loud didn’t shock her but knowing that she truly meant it shocked her a little. She didn’t show it, there was no need to. The rest of the night passed fairly quickly, with Tristan asking almost any question that came to his head. Alice didn’t mind, it was nice telling someone other than Liz about her life in Gotham.

\- - -

When the time came, Alice questioned if this was really a good idea or not. It’s not like she was dolled up for the situation but was feeling very nervous. She supposed that the worst outcome was getting into a shootout with him, if he had the gun umbrella. Her own revolver was on a shelf under the bar just in case. Living in Gotham long enough teaches you to always be prepared for different situations. Even killing a crime lord.

Liz and Tristan were sitting at one of the round tables nearby, just in case something went wrong. Both had Jim Gordon’s cell phone number just in case but hoped that they wouldn’t have to use it. Last resort and all that jazz.

Alice heard Oswald before she saw him. Then again, most people did, it was hard not to hear the umbrella he used as a cane. She didn’t look, simply glanced at the mirror. From the looks of it, he either didn’t realize it was her or they were both keeping good masks on. Masks that came from years of being crime lords. These masks managed to stay on long enough for Oswald to order and receive his drink, then an awkward silence filled the lobby. Out of the corner of her eye, Alice saw Liz facepalm.

“How are you still in Gotham, Alice?” Oswald asked finally. They didn’t need formalities; it wasn’t often that they ever did. Even when they were together, there were many times they just jumped right to the point.

“I never left.” Alice answered.

Oswald raised his eyebrows, shocked at the news. She could see the gears in his head turning, trying to figure out something. “I looked everywhere except the obvious,” he muttered.

Well that was certainly news. She never thought that he would ever look for her. Hell, she thought he never wanted to see her again. Although there was still one question that remained. “Why were you looking for me?” she asked, leaning on the bar.

Oswald leaned across from her, both of them talking low enough to Tristan and Liz couldn’t hear. “To say I’m sorry. Let me have one more chance, Ali. Please. I’ll take you to dinner and we’ll talk it over” he pleaded.

Alice’s blue eyes widened a fraction. She certainly wasn’t expecting that at all. Slowly, she stood back up. In that moment, the height difference was highly visible. Alice was six feet tall barefoot, standing over Oswald’s 5’ 6” easily. She was processing, but her gut told her what she really wanted to know. It was her own personal rule to trust her gut when it was practically screaming the answer at her. “Alright,” she answered, “I’m free on Friday.”

Oswald grinned, finishing his drink. They made plans for dinner on Friday night, agreeing to meet up at the hotel and go from there. Alice knew Liz would already be working the bar, so she didn’t have to worry about asking her to cover the bar. She knew that once this was done, both Liz and Tristan would want details when this was over. That was fine, she would make them help her get ready in return. They planned to leave a little before the bar was open.

\- - -

Friday night came quickly, and so did getting ready for her date. Of course, Liz and Tristan got their details and helped her get ready for it. Full makeup, curled hair and a classy long-sleeved cocktail dress to go with it. Soon enough she was sitting with Oswald at one of the fanciest restaurants in Gotham, feeling almost like it used to be. Back when they were married and running the city without a care in the world. It ended up being more than dinner. Oswald invited Alice back to his place for a drink, which she accepted. He offered to have her drove back to the hotel as well, just in case she had a bit too much.

On Saturday morning, she was waking up by her phone vibrating, and she really did not want to bother with it. Cracking an eye open, Alice noticed two things: her phone wasn’t on the bedside table, and that wasn’t her bedside table. In fact, this room wasn’t located in the Cortez at all. It was too big, and nicely furnished. The bed was bigger too, with silk purple sheets. Oh, she really hoped this was not where she thought she was.

Slowly, last night fully came back to her. She didn’t get drunk, both she and Oswald had a glass each and left It at that. Hell, she and Oswald spent enough time talking that the effects of the booze had long wore off. One thing led to another, and then lead to his bedroom.

Alice sighed, rubbing her face with her hand. Carefully, she looked over her shoulder and saw Oswald. He had the sheets pulled up to his neck, but one look at his hair, and the feel of sheets against her own skin told her everything she needed to know. Oh, damnit all, she slept with her ex-husband. One date with the man and she was already back in bed with him. That probably said something about her, but she didn’t really care what. Not that she regretted what she did. Thinking about it, she would do it all over again given the chance. Oswald was still Oswald and they both admitted that the divorce was a mistake. Maybe this was a chance to start over and-

Alice’s thoughts, and doze, were interrupted by her phone going off again. Clearly somebody was looking for her and fairly bad. Unwrapping herself from the sheet cocoon, Alice leaned over the bed and found her phone. She waited until the call was done to look at the damages. Liz had just called twice, and there were a few texts asking where she was. Deciding she would deal with this later, she told Liz she was safe, and her battery was dying. She would tell her more when she got back to the hotel.

Leaning back onto the bed, she processed the date. October 31st, it was Devil’s Night. Shit. Shit. Shit. She forgot all about that and could kick herself for it.

Before she could worry about it more, an arm slipped around her waist. Oswald must have heard her phone going off. She really didn’t want to leave this bed. It was far too comfortable right now. She would stay for a few more minutes before she leaving. She ended up dozing off for half an hour then waking up again. Looking at the time, she decided it was best she went home.

Carefully, she unwrapped Oswald’s arm from her waist and began getting dressed. She knew it was obvious that she looked like hell, but she didn’t really care. “Where are you going?” Oswald asked, trying to wake up.

“Back to the hotel, they’re waiting for me,” Alice answered, “Can you zip me up?”

She sat on the bed while Oswald zipped her dress back up. Once he was done, Alice turned and kissed him hard. “This was fun,” She muttered, “We should do this again sometime.”

Oswald chuckled his agreement, offering to have his driver take her home. She told him not to worry about it, deciding to take a taxi instead. She would get enough shit after getting home and she was certain it would take longer for the driver to get there.

She left Oswald’s house with her head held high and maybe a slight bounce in her step. Getting back to the hotel seemed like it was going to be uneventful. At least until after she walked past the bar’s view where Tristan yelled “ALRIGHT, ALICE GOT LUCKY.” She said nothing, didn’t even stop in her tracks. Instead, she flipped him off the entire ride up the elevator where she saw Liz trying not to laugh at the whole situation. This was going to be a very long evening.


End file.
